Life in the Pit

Strangely, our biggest safety issues at the Ballet and Opera are actually getting into the pit. Because the Ballet’s pit was designed to be mobile, and is no longer, the only real entrance to it is below its current level. In place of that, there is a temporary plywood staircase on stage left, which is fine, and a ladder on stage right. All of the space for a staircase is taken up by the Fox Theater’s famous organ, played before the show and during intermission. Unfortunately for me, that is the bass side in our setup. We have two equally goofy choices for getting to our spot. We can either traverse the entire orchestra from the left side, knocking down stands and chairs as we go, or pass the bass over the lip to someone waiting in the pit and then climb down the ladder. Clearly, this is not ideal. Though I’ve gotten used to it for myself, it always concerns me a bit watching someone come down the ladder in heels or with an instrument.

The Opera has actually just moved to a new theater, so the problems there may be over, but, briefly, the issue there was similar. Again, the pit was no longer moved regularly, making it necessary for us to climb up a staircase from behind the stage into the pit through a door about four and a half feet tall, also a rather amusing scenario for the bass section. Once inside, the lip we play under is only about six and a half feet tall, and if we don’t watch it we are constantly whacking out scrolls against the ceiling. Recently, I took out a light bulb this way, though, to be fair, these are usually removed. As I said, though, in the fall we’ll have a new facility, so maybe that problem is over.

Beyond that, two issues come to mind right off. First, cords to trip over. All pits have this issue to some extent because of stand lights. At the Ballet, it is particularly fun, because we have not only stand lights, but individual microphones for amplification. There is also the standard pit problem of things coming from the stage. At the Ballet there have often been things hurled in our general direction, some amusing, some scary. In a production of Dracula, drops of fake blood landed in our music from time to time, getting us in the vampire spirit. Our most recent Swan Lake featured an overactive fog machine, making it difficult the see the music now and then. Some musicians also complained about it feeling uncomfortable to breathe. In Nutcracker, we occasionally have overexcited party children that chuck things in unexpected directions. A stuffed rat once landed about an inch from our harp player. That one was a bit worrisome, as a well-placed rat could easily hurt a delicate instrument.

Of course, in the Opera, there is the problem of looooong services resulting in overuse, but as this post is already too long, I’ll leave that one for someone else.